James solidifies his "rock star" status with newspaper photo

The excitement continues. Today at church someone came up and asked me if I had seen the picture of James in the newspaper. I had not so they went to look for one to show me. It was great. James was congratulated over and over today at church. Someone actually asked for an autograph. After the first autograph was given, James was on a roll. He began to give out unsolicited autographs to anyone he found. This afternoon he went down to the Wilson's to watch himself on TV. They were gracious enough to record him during his great moment. So all is well. The baseball appearance followed by the newspaper and then to watch himself on TV, James is loving life.

Pujols and James

James threw out the first pitch at the St. Louis Cardinals - Springfield Cardinals game. Dream come true not only for James but also for the family, James threw the pitch to Albert Pujols.

We all kind of wondered how he would do. He was in his "play to the crowd" mood. When he was asked to walk out to meet Albert Pujols, I asked James if he needed me to go or was he ok to go by himself. He turned to me and said, "go sit down". And with that he walked off with the Cardinals officials to meet Albert Pujols. We could see him talking up a storm and pointing to his family all standing up against the fence. Albert waved to us a couple of times and then James was asked to go and "fire away". He ran all the way to the pitchers mound and with great confidence wound up and threw the ball. The ball did not quite make it to home plate, but Mr. Pujols ran and scooped it up off the grass and went to congratulate James. He then signed the ball and handed it to James.

As we walked up the stairs to find our seats he was greeted by many of the fans in their chairs. James was smiling ear to ear. He felt like a rock star for the moment.

I had offered to buy him a hot dog after he pitched just to keep him from lingering on the field. He was glad to stand in line and claim the snack. He was loving the snacks, the pop and the whole baseball experience. When the vendor came walking by offering cold beer, his hand went up, just as it did for peanuts, kettle corn, cotton candy and any other snack offered. Needless to say we contented ourselves with the peanuts and said no to the rest of the snack buffet.

Special thanks to Lynn Neidigh, President of the Down Syndrome Support Group of the Ozarks, who made it all happen. We also want to thank Becky Morgan, Down Syndrome Support Group board member, who accompanied us as the official representative of the support group.

Getting Ready for Albert Pujols

Well here is the big news. James was selected by the Down Syndrome Support Group of Springfield to represent them by throwing out the first pitch to Albert Pujols on Saturday, March 29. Needless to say, we are all very excited. We are also hoping that when the reality of that many people in the stands watching our guy sets in, he will enjoy the attention and not shy away from it all. He does love being cheered. We kind of practiced a family "cheer for James at the Cardinal's game". When Coco did not clap and cheer, he immediately broke from his bow to yell "Coco, clap". (Actually, James can't say the letter "L" and it sounds like "R" but, I can't write that word here.) It makes us laugh and we insisted that Coco join the cheer so we could move on. She did and the bow continued.

All is ready, the red Cardinal shirt with number 5 and Pujols on the back has been bought along with the blue shorts. We are going to be ready with a baseball, just in case an autograph is a possibility. Robert will be covering the event for Hillcrest TV. Troy agreed to bring a camera and shoot for us.

When James was born, he was the child we worried would have more challenges than opportunities. It is amazing to watch God pick him out and give him something this cool. God is good.

Albert Pujols openly confesses that he has accepted Jesus Christ as His Savior and that his family has a commitment to put God first. He also has used his experience with having a Down Syndrome child in the home to encourage and support other families like his. A special thanks to Mr. Pujols for his strong testimony and service to others.

So tomorrow is the big day at the ball field.

Wear "flops" and buy "melelelems".

James has enjoyed his week at home during spring break. His curiosity has been at its peak. Escaping regularly to different parts of the house where no one sees him, he has plundered with abandon. His mother has had the flu, and even in her weakened state, she is running around cleaning up after our own little guy. His path of discovery has been like having both Lewis and Clark in the same body. His latest adventure was to go downstairs to the basement and pull out big sister's guitar and other electronic music gear. From there he ventured into the Christmas decor storage area and decided to reintroduce some holiday cheer into the decor. Cindy all the while trying to contain him in his room so that she can go clean up after him.

This afternoon is such a beautiful day, we decided to just go somewhere. James wanted to wear his "flops" his word for flip flops (when I was a kid we called them something that my kids won't let me say anymore). He wants to go buy "melelelems" a pronunciation of one of America's favorite candies M&M's that involves more tongue twirling action than anyone ever thought of. You have to see it to fully appreciate it.

Never a dull moment. James is busy and for the most part a happy boy from dawn to late at night. His latest request is to be able to paint. He is quite the artist. My favorite picture is his "robot". Maybe some art lessons would be a good way to direct his creativity and energy.

I Go to my Church

It is Monday night and James came into the living room and said, "I go to my church". He then began to recite the names of his teachers and friends in his Special Friends Class at church. At first I was a bit confused and then it dawned on me. His sister Coco is recovering from having wisdom teeth extracted. Because of this Cindy, James and Coco did not go to church yesterday. This has town James off. He loves his teachers and friends at church. Special thanks to all of James teachers.

"Silly Me, My Bad"

Sitting in the living room I hear the noise of tearing paper in the kitchen. Then comes Cindy's voice, "James, you can't open other people's mail." To this James gives up his defense statement that is suppose to cover a multitude of sins and turn her disfavor around. "Silly Me, My Bad." Now there is no doubt that forgiveness will flow. But facts are facts, when you open and loose someone else's mail that is not good.

Who can blame James. He is all about doing everything everyone else around him does. That includes getting mail.

Where's James?

One of the most heard questions in our house is, "Where's James?". Our whole family kind of lives in this ongoing "James watch". He is one curious, busy boy. When he disappears to the basement to explore his siblings rooms, his plundering is apparent. We are constantly checking to make sure he is still in his room and if he is not, we must go on the hunt. There have been times when he has gotten up before the rest of us only to find him with frying pan on the stove and broken eggs on the floor. When his mother walks into the kitchen she is greeted by his charming and yet guilty face. What are you doing, James? "I cook eggs." Nothing like stating the obvious. All of the doors in the house are wired to trip a chime so we know when an exterior is opened. We all ask each other if they have seen James in the last few minutes and we make sure he has not just walked out the door.

Well today James was at home with his sister Coco. She was working with a friend on a history day project. She had made sure James was in his room playing so they could concentrate on their project. All of a sudden the door bell rang so she went to see who it was. Much to her amazement it was James standing outside at the front door. She was shocked and she asked James how he got there. He proceeded to explain that he climbed out the window in his bedroom, walked down the street to our friends the Wilson's and also across the street to Aunt Karen's house. It just so happened no one was at the Wilson's and Aunt Karen was not at home either. Thankfully, James did not know anyone else on our block and so he had come home. Coco said that after hearing about his excursion it dawned on her that for about 20 minutes James had been particularly quiet in his room.

Our James surveillance efforts today have reached a new level. And so the question, "Where's James?" just became even more important.

There is snow at my school

James has this unique ability to be enthusiastic and excited about things the rest of us take for granted.

Finally after several years Springfield got a good snow. Around six inches of the great white, fluffy, sledding quality snow. It was beautiful. Along with the snow came every child's dream. Snow and a snow day from school. So for a day, the kids played in the snow. Because it is March in the Ozarks we saw the snow come one day and melt the next.

The day after the snow fell and before it had melted away, school was back in session. I took James to school that morning. He sits in the backseat and can't really see much out the window on that daily ride to Reed Middle School. We pulled up to his school. I got out of the car to open his door and walk him into the building. He got out and looked around and with great enthusiasm and surprise he yells, "There snow at my school." His school had never sported the outside white carpet until this day. For James even though his house had snow for which he had rejoiced, this was a whole new and unexpected reason to be enthusiastic about school.

I was reminded once again that sometime we are too smart to rejoice over simple things. Thanks, James for the reminder.